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SPEECH 



■^■' 



CHARLES BROWN, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



ABOLITION AND SLAVERY: 



DELIVERED 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 3 AND 7, 1849. 



WASHINGTON : 

PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 

1849. 



ABOLITION AND SLAVERY. 



In reply to Mr. Thompson, of Indiana, on Aboli- 
tion and Slavery. 

Mr. BROWN said: 

Mr. Chairman: Ever since I have been in active 
political life, beginning twenty years back, before 
the people of Pennsylvania, in her halls of legisla- 
tion, and in the convention that amended her con- 
stitution, have I spoken as I speak this day, against 
this whole abolition agitation, here or in the free 
States. Since I have had the honor of a seat in 
this House, I have given silent votes against every 
proposition that has been brought into it in any 
way calculated to interfere with the subject of 
slavery, here or in the slave States, knowing that 
its agitation could do no goqij, and was doing much 
harm. And I would have continued the same 
quiet course for the brief space of time I have yet 
to remain here — looking to the future to approve 
my course, as my constituents have heretofore ap- 
proved all that 1 have said and done upon the sub- 
ject — but for the remarkable speech of the gentle- 
man from Indiana [Mr. Thompson] — a speech 
which struck me, as I think it must have struck 
this House, with surprise and astonishment. 

The gentleman told us, that upon this subject he 
belonged to the great conservative party of the 
Union — the party opposed to the abolition of sla- 
very in the District of Columbia, or in the States, or 
its agitation in any place where it might have the 
tendency to disturb the peace and harmony of the 
country, or endanger the perpetuity of our Union. 
He not only asserted his own»conservatism, but 
vouched for the conservatism of the people of the 
State which he in part represents; and, still further, 
vouched for and boasted of the conservatism of 
the late venei-able gentleman from Massachusetts, 
[Mr. J. Q,. Adams,] who, but a few months ^ince, 
fell among us. Now, I ask, were not these start- 
ling assertions .' To me they were. I remember 
well when I met^that gentleman [Mr. Thompson] 
on this floor some seven years ago ; he was then tru ly 
conservative on this question. I had doubts then 
as to the propriety of the twenty-first rule, and 
my colleague [Mr. C. J. Ingersoll] and myself 
attempted for days to have it modified, that what- 
ever was objectionable in it might be struck out, 
and all its conservative character retained. After 
two or three weeks' trial, we failed to attain our. 
end. We could not amend it, and we voted for it; 
and from that time to this I have sustained that 
rule, and opposed the introduction of the subject 
of slavery in any shape. Then the gentleman was 
with us, in laying upon the table all abolition ques- 
tions. Then he was a conservative, and rebuked 
the agitating spirit of abolitionism here. But when 



I again met him on this floor at the commencement 
of the present Congress, how stood the matter? 
There is the record. Upon every question of the 
introduction of petitions, during the last session of 
Congress, relative to slavery in the District of 
Columbia, the gentleman who, in his speech, so 
sternly rebukes these movements as calculated to 
<lismember the Union, or to disturb its harmony, 
voted upon the yeas and nays to bring them into 
this Flail, and against laying them on the table. , 

Nay more. When the gentleman from Ohio, 
[Mr. Giddings,] at the last session, introduced 
resolutions concerning a slave who had been mal- 
treated at some hotel in this city — a subject well 
calculated to agitate and irritate the feelings of 
southern members — did not the gentleman from 
Indiana again vote against laying the resolutions 
on the' table, desiring to have them agitated by the 
Hou-'e.' How changed was the gentleman last 
session from the time when he stood beside me, 
six years ago, voting to censure the gentleman 
from Ohio [Mr. Giddings] for introducing resolu- 
tions calculated to excite the country, and to create 
unhappy feelings. He who then stood with me 
to censure and expel from this Hall the gentleman 
from Ohio, is now found voting with him. 

On the territorial question the gentleman's acts 
have been equally as much at variance with his 
speech. He says: 

•' Before he would endanger the union of these States by 
the deterinitiation of any question which might arise in the 
setlleiuent of the controversy between the North and thu 
South, in reference to New Mexico and California, lie would 
vote driiberately in his place to give if all back, gold mines 
and all." 

And yet we find by the reqord he has voted for 
the Wilmot proviso whenever it has been offered, 
and against both of the bills that were passed by 
the Senate as compromises to settle this question 
without endangering the Union. In his speech he 
says: 

" The discussion of the Missouri compromise, and thr 
admission of that State into the Union, shook this Union to 
its very centre; the spirit of fanaticism and of faction well 
nigh worked the flissolulion of that glorious Union, under _ 
who.se preservation our rights had been so long guarantied " 
and maintained. But conciliation, compromise, and eon- 
cession, again prevailed, and the Union and its integrity 
were safe." 

Patriotic sentiments ! But then, while my.friend 
from Indiana eulogizes iht men who fixed the line 
of 36° 30' as patriots deserving the lasting honor 
of the country, he did not vote the other day for 
36° 30' ; he did not follow in the footsteps of those 
men whom he eulogized — he voted against it. 

1 heard {he eloquent speech of the gentleman 
from Indiana [Mr. Thompson] (for he is always 



4 



eloquent) with great pleasure, and I only regret 
that his acts have not corresponded svith his words. 
i regret that he gives to the friends of his youth 
and the harmony of the Union his speech only, and 
to tlie enemies of both all his votes. 

Nor is he more consistent in his eulogy of Mr. 
Adams. Will any man in this House believe that 
Mr. Adams stood as a bulwark against the encroach- 
ments of abolition feeling'in this country? 1 ask the 
friends of that departed man, if the gentleman from 
Indiana does honor to liis name or faine in making 
him the stumbling-block in the way of " fanatical 
abolition," in making him "stay its progress, 
although it required the strength of a giant to 
arrest it," and "rebuke the incendiary spirit which 
would have sundered every link of the beautiful 
cycle of our Union r" 

I know Mr. Adams did say what the gentleman 
asserts, that he was opposed to the abolition of 
slavery in tlie District of Columbia then; but I 
appeal to the memory of that man, if, while he 
said this, he did not on every occasion, and under 
all circumstances, through his " scathing elo- 
quence" and votes, give his powerful aid to roll 
on, no matter who might be crushed by it, the ball 
of abolition agitation. 

Nor has my friend from Indiana placed his own 
constituents, or the people of Indiana, in any truer 
position than he has Mr. Adams, or occupies him- 
self. 1 have before me the proceedings of a late 
"Whig convention in Indiana — but just gone by — 
scarcely cold. The pa[)er that conveys the intel- 
ligence to the country of the conservatisni of the 
Whigs of Indiana is scarcely dry. The resolu- 
tions of the convention, like the speech of the 
gentleman from Indiana, are full of high-sounding 
phrases of fraternal regard for the S(3uth, eloquent 
in their tone, but containing* poison within them; 
like Joab with Amasa, with one hand they em- 
brace the South to kiss them, saying, "Is it well 
with thee, my brother?" whilst in tlie other hand 
they hold the dagger with which they stab them 
to the heart. 1 will read these resolutions, because 
they may be new to many in this House who 
heard the speech of my friend the other day: 

"Resolved, That the VVliig parly of Indiana, here repre- 
gcnteil in convention, would calmly but lirnily express ilie 
conviction lliat thf- exlfiition of slavery over llie newly 
acquired Territories of New Mexico and Calitoriiia ought 
to he proliibited hy law; that it is our settled opinion that 
Congress, as the gu^irdiau of our iufant 'J'erritorie;-, pos- 
sesses that rijiht; that its exercise would be promotive ol- 
lastinz good to the people who shall inhabit the country in- 
cluded 111 the late treaty with Mexico; and further, that it is 
the opinion of this eonvenlloii that it is expedient to exer- 
cise tlie power at the present session of Congress." 

The resolution introduced by the gentleman from 
New York [Mr. Gott] a few days ago, met the 
special censure of my friend from Indiana, because 
it spoke of slavery interfering with the progress of 
human liberty throughout the world. We all know 
how eloquently the gentleman disclaimed any such 
imputation upon slavery. I will read his words: 

" Till- resolution asserted that >l.i\<ry, as ii exi^ti'd in the 
United States, w.is 'a.si'nnus Inndiaiiee to the progress of 
reiiublican liberty throughout the earth.' VVi II, he could 
not, tor the life of him, iinn^jine what sort of an absstraclion 
that was; bu.t it was not true." 

Here is the response froin the Whigs of Indiana: 
" Remlied, That tt<o spirit of the ape, and the liberal and 
enlichtene-d pliilanth-ropy which distinguishes it.s progros, 
renuiie sacrifices of individual opinion to the great cause of 
tiuinan freedom; lliat this spirit should be 'shared by the 
government and the govwned ; that man, in every condi- 



tion, should he reinvested with his riglitsof life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness; and that it is the anxious desire of 
the people here represented, that all constitutional and proper 
means should lie employed to free our national capital from 
the last vestige of human bondage." 

The-seconservative Whigs of Indiana overlooked, 
in iheir-zeal for the " rjgiits of man," that ne- 
groes in their own State were not invested with 
any political right — were not allowed their oaths 
against white men, though necessary to protect 
their life or liberty. 

These resolutions of the Whigs of Indiana show 
that they are not as conservative on this subject as 
the speech of the gentleman represented them — 
they sympathize more with these fanatical aboli- 
tionists he condemns. 

In eulogizing Mr. Adams, the gentleman from 
Indiana took occasion to condemn his son for 
associating himself with Mr. Van Buren in form- 
ing the Free-soil party; thanking his God that, 
■'' so far, their course has been stayed by the stern 
rebuke of the American people;" and says," neither 
' the Whig nor Democratic parties of the North can 
'in any degree symfiathize with the present or 
' ultimate purposesof (liis fanatical parly." Now, 
what say the Whigs of Indiana? I have before 
me a leading newspaper, the editor of which was 
one of the Taylor electors, who, I suppose, speaks 
with as much knowledge of the subject as the gen- 
tleman, and probably is to be regarded as a much 
better exponent of the opinions of the people there. 
He says, in speaking'of the Free-soil convention 
which had just assembled: 

'■ We learn, also, tliat a good deal of difference of opinion 
existed as to tile propriety of alteniptiiigjn keep up a sepa- 
rate organization, now that the VVhiffs have put in nomina- 
tion as good Free-soil men as can be (bund in the State. A 
resolution confirming the ncniiiiations of Messrs. Eiiibree 
and Stanfield was offered hy John H. Bradley, E-t7. * * * 
He contended that the candidates presented by the Whig 
party were all that could lie asked on the slavery question, 
and hy the proper effort and union they could be elected, 
whilst there was no possibility of electing the nominees of 
a third party organization." 

And thus concludes: 

" The etlect of sueh a course would most probably enable 
Jamci H. Lane to giie lire iri^tin^ vote against the postage of 
prOTper inslnictions to our Sciiators on the slavery question, 
and would elect Mr. JVright, u/iose rcholc past aition proved 
Ai)ii to be opposed to any interference on the part of Congress 
in relation to slavery in our Territories." 

Thus this leading Whig editor connects the 
Whig party, its candidates and measures, with the 
Free-soil party and its measures, and says, that 
unless the latter should adopt the Whigcandidates, 
the only effect would be to cause the election of 
Democratic candidates who are opposed to the in- 
terference of Congress on the subject of slavery. 
Is that the conservatism of Indiana? Is that the 
conservatism of the gentleman himself? — to aid in 
the election of men who arc known to be in favor 
of free soil, and of the agitation of the subject of 
abolition, and to defeat men who would cairy out 
the objects which he assert.-? on this floor he and 
the people of Indiana would sustain? The argu- 
ments used by this Whig editor to get the votes of 
the Free-soil party of IntJiana for the Whig candi- 
dates arc just such as were used everysvhcrc in the 
North previous to the late PresidetUial election, 
and which, in Pennsylvania, unforlLinately were 
but too successful. 

But 1 rejoice at one thing in tiie gentleman's 
speech. It will be found in the following passage: 

" He wished it were true— he wished he could say it was 
true, that this. Hall of legislation had as much of tliat cahn, 



s 



vHelibcrate conservatism as existed in t)io minds of the great 
lindy of the Anierienn peDple. But tliere was oPien to be 
fonnd a liillerence between the representative and liis con- 
stituent : while the constituent, at home, was steadily, 
■calmlv, coolly, and earnestly looking and praying for the 
preservation of tlie welfare of the Government, tkey in this 
Hall, loe often pi-omjited '.;/ considerations offadion atxljyirtii, 
u-ere disfurhinv the peace and repose of the Union, and were 
<is:itiitivs ami exciting for their oiin sinister ends and selfish 
purposes. There was coming a time, he believed— and he 
■thanked God it was so — n-hen]there should come out from 
the Federal Executive of this Union this spirit of popular con- 
servatism, and it should be poured lihe oil 'upon the waters of 
party: when, in the settlement of great naiional f|uesti6iis, 
they should neither know the name of U'hig nor Democrat, 
but should lie prompted hy those high, lioly, elevated consid- 
erations which alone existe^l in the heart of the true Amer- 
ican patriot, whose every pulsation beats for tlie integrity of 
the Union of these States," 

It may be there are those in this House and out 
of it, whose minds aieundergoing:, or have under- 
gone changes on this subject, as well as that of the 
gentleman from Indiana; and it may be they see, in 
the incoming Executive, " a spirit of popular con- 
servatism, that is to be poured, like oil, upon the 
waters of party;" that they see, in that incumbent 
of the Executive chair, a man who has not only 
lived half his life, but the whole of it, in the South; 
«nd that to th'ese indications of coming Executive 
influence may be attributed their "conservative" 
change — a change that will prove alike favorable 
to their country and their ow'n future prospects. 
If so, if favors are to be won by the conservative 
principles so eloquently expressed by my friend 
from Indiana, I, for one, shall Fegret to the last 
day of my life that I opposed the election of an 
Executive who Vk'ould exercise so great and glori- 
ous an influence over the destinies of this country. 
I would fain hope that the omen is true, and that 
those who fear that the new Executive will not be 
prompted by those hish, holy, elevated considera- 
tions, will be found to be in error. I would fain hope 
that we shall have peace and harmony again; that 
we shall be as a band of brothers; thai we shall 
meet in this Hall, and everywhere throughout the 
country, as our fathers met in the days of the 
Revolution, or as our predecessors met but a few 
years ago, and crushed everything that interfered 
with the peace, harmony, and integrity, of the 
Union. 

I know'the gentleman from Indiana is a man of 
discernment, and can see as far into the future as 
most men — perhaps a little further than many of 
his associates. The shadows that coming events 
oft cast before have certainly been penetrated by 
him, and he sees and feels the sunlight that is soon 
to shine from the White House — the sun whose 
beams often warm into being, and control many a 
man's acts in this country, as well as his speeches 
and votes in these Halls. I impute no improper 
motive to my friend from Indiana. A change has 
truly come over the spirit of his dream since our 
last session, or he could not have voted then as he 
did, and speak now as he does. Had he felt then, 
when the bitter waters of agitation were spreading 
thenaselves far and wide, and reaching the very 
hearts of every portion of our people, what he 
speaks now, he would here, in New England, in 
Indiana, and everywhere else where his mission 
then led him, have rebuked the unhallowed spirit 
ihat rode upon those waters, in the same eloquent 
language he poured forth in this Hall the other day. 
Changed he is — but this change is doubtless an 
honest one. It may be" the return of early feelings 
and associations, the ties of which come back upon 



us stronger and stronger, as we grow older — or it 
may be, and no doubt is, the convictions of a riper 
judgment — the triumpli of a better patriotism, that 
rises over all "sinister ends and sellish purposes." 
No matter what may be the causes or the motives 
of the change that has taken place in my friend 
from Indiana and others, I augur from it great good 
to the whole people of these United States; and I 
most sincerely ho[)e that the good work will go on, 
and that when the new Whig and Democratic no- 
party Administration coriies into power, the polit- 
ical millennium predicted by the gentleman from 
Indiana shall surely come with it. 

For myself, I have opposed this agitation from 
the first to this tiime; and I think it behooves us 
all to look where we stand, and where we are 
going. As the gentleman from Indiana has justly , 
said, we do not stand where we did. This agita- 
tion is leading us on.wards and downwards, and 
no man can predict where it will end. A few years 
ago, who thought that speeches, such as are now 
delivered here, from time to time, would ever be 
heard in this Hall? What wobld liave be'en 
thought, in .the early days of the RepubHc, if 
speeches, such as was delivered by the gentleman 
from Massachusetts, [Mr. Mann,] had been heard? 
Where was the noble son of the South who would 
have sat and listened to such a speech, or who 
would not have rebuked it in the fcice of the coun- 
try, or left the Hall in a moment? — a speech tra- 
ducing the South, characterizing its citizens as 
among the most degraded in the civilized world, 
and attributing to them all the vices humanity can 
be guilty of, and closing the catalogue by saying: 
" Thus, at length, has Iseen produced Vifhat may 
I be called the boirie-kiiife styk of ckUization; and 
' the new west of the South is overrun by it — a 
' spirit of blood which defies all the laws of Gop 
' and man!" 

It would not be difficult, in any state or condi- 
tion of society, to point to many a wrong that evil 
hearts and bad passions inflict upon their victirns — 
to many a human right violated, and to many a 
wreck of human happiness they have left* upon 
the shores of life; but are we thereforeto conclude 
that because these do occur that the whole society 
is wicked and vHe, and unworthy a place ion God's 
footstool? Where can we find a spot on the earth 
where men dwell together that no wrong nor out- 
rage is committed ? Why, sir, if we were to gather 
from the records of those chronicles of passing 
events, the newspapers, none but the deepest and 
foulest crimes that are committed in a single year 
in a single State or city of this Union — aye, even 
in that State and city that seems to say to all the 
world,'" I am holier than thou" — I mean the "old 
Bay Slate," and the " cradle of liberty" — and send 
them forth to the world in the simplest lahsuageof 
truth, stripped of all the burning and damning elo- 
quence of words and images with which the char- 
acter of the slaveholder and the wrongs of the slave 
are published to the world by the fanatical abo- 
litionist, who is there in that proud State and city 
that woifd not shudder at the fearful exhibition? 
I know in my own native city and State — the city 
and State of Penn — such an array of crimes would 
be fearful indeed, and would prove that there, aa 
everywhere else, 

'^ Man's inhumanity to man 
Makes countless thousands mourn." 

What would the gentleman from Massachu- 



6 



setts, who was himself at the head of the school- 
system of that Slate, and who recently received 
the thanks of tlie State for his services, think, if a 
southern man sliould rise in his place here, with a 
long; array of crimes committed, day after day, and 
week after week, and characterize them as evi- 
dences of the civilization of New England, or of 
the effects of the school-system in his own State? 
What would he think, if a southern gentleman liad. 
risen here, and pointed to a recentevent — atrial then 
just completed — of a son of New England for the 
quadruple crime of seduction, adultery, murder, 
and arson? I allude to the case of Tirrell. True, 
though he was guilty of all these crimes, and if 
they had been perpetrated in the South, a southern 
jury would have brought him in guilty of all, and he 
• would have expiated his offence on the gallows, 
yet a Massachusetts judge and jury, through the 
eloquence of a Massachusetts lawyer, pronounced 
all these crimes — what? Seduction — adultery — 
murder — arson? No — Somnambulism. New Eng- 
land finds honeyed terms for crimes committed 
there. But if done in the South — if the evil pas- 
sions which everywhere exhibit themselves from 
the pulpit to the lowest alley in the largest city, 
should liave been thus manifested in a southern 
State, or by a master towards his slave, or the 
crime committted upon a negro, it would have been 
blazoned forth in eloquent language, embellished by 
the painter's and the graver's art, and sent through- 
out the world as the effect of slavery. 

But I have no taste for such criminations and 
recriminations, and I trust they will be heard no 
more in these Halls. Nor have I any pleasure in 
hunting up from the records of criminal courts or 
calendars the evidences of the wrongs and outrages 
with which earth is filled, north and south; and no 
true lover of his country ought to have, upon 
which to find an indictment against my fellow- 
countrymen. I would rather cover them from all 
eyes, and hold up to the gaze of the world the 
nobler traits and better deeds of the whole Amer- 
ican people, and thus elevate our national charac- 
ter atjroad, and induce a more christian love and 
charity for each other, and a more just apprecia- 
tion of oi» hallowed Union at home. 

Thebe^f and surest way of removing this unhap- 
py state of feeling is by voting down every proposi- 
tion introduced for the mere purpose of agitation. 
This will never be done while encouragement is 
given to those who introduce them. I am told by 
some members who voted against laying on the 
table the bill of the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. 
GiDDivGs] to allow slaves in this District to vote 
for their own emancipation — to place all persons, 
black and white, bond and free, on an equality — 
that they were opposed to this part of it, and 
would not have voted for the bill with this in it. 
No matter what else of good might have been in 
the bill, containing, as it did, this insulting propo- 
sition, every friend to the peace and harmony of 
the Union should have voted it down immediately. 
Why should members from Connecticut, a State 
which, a few years since, by a vote of thrfe to one, 
refused to negroes the right of suffrage — or from 
Illinois, that not only has refused them all politi- 
cal rights, but refuses to allow them to live upon 
her soil, entertain for a momont such a monstrous 
proposition, or desire to have it considered and 
debated here .' 

In Pennsylvania we have excluded negroes from 



voting, after a solemn adjudication of the subject^ 
j Yet some of my colleagues, coming, too, from dis- 
tricts whose votes were almost unanimous in favor 
I of this exclusion, have placed upon the record their 
votes against the immediate suppression of the con- 
sideration of the subject here. My friend fron* 
the northern district [Mr. Wilmot] is one of them. 
; When he first offered his proviso to the territorial 
bill, he repudiated all connection with the Aboli- 
tionists; and I know, in a speech which he did me 
the honor to send me, delivered elsewhere, he said 
he had no sympathy with the negroes; that all he 
did was for the white man, for the free laborer of 
the North. Then (here is the record) he voted to 
suppress all petitions for the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia. His vote is not found 
then to aid this abolition agitation; yet how do we 
find him voting this session ? Why, against laying 
on the table a bill to allow the negroes, both slave 
and free, to vote in this District, and for all questions 
which have arisen for the agitation of the subject 
of the abolition of slavery. It shows (for I mean 
nothing unkind to my colleague; I have no unkind 
feelings towards him) where we are going — like 
little children, we begin by creeping, then we walk, 
and then we run. All these attempts, whether 
successful or unsuccessful, to raise the negro polit- 
ically or socially to an equality with the white 
man, by act of Congress, and most of all, lo allow 
slares to vote in this District, in the midst of slave- 
holding States, for their own emancipation, are 
most incendiary in their character, and insulting- 
to the South. In few States have they any polit- 
ical rights, and in still fewer are they in any re- 
spect placed on an equality with ourselves. Why 
should we entertain, then, for a moment, in this 
House, such a question ? May not the people of 
the South justly .say to us, " First cast out the 
beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see 
clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's 
eye^" 

In the olden time, as the gentleman from Indiana 
justly says, these abolition agitations were sum- 
marily put down in this House. Now, we have 
little else before us. Day after day, in one shape 
or another, the negroes have all- our consideration: 
we seem to think of nothing else, we talk of noth- 
ing else. All the other business of the country is 
postponed, or badly done, that we may vilify and 
abuse each other about slavery. Nor is this the 
worst aspect of this agit'ation. This sectional war, 
carried on here in words, is sent out by every 
mail — aye, with telegraphic speed — among the 
people, there to make enemies of those 

" Who had else 
Like kindred drops been mingled into one." 

There seems to be an inexplicable mysteiy 
hanging over ail these our doings. The gentleman 
from Indiana tells us he and his people are con- 
servative on this question; that they do not desire 
to abolish slavery in this District, or anywhere 
else; that they do not want to commit any wrong 
upon the rights, or feelings, or interests of the 
people of the South, or in any way or in any place 
agitate the question of abolition. How is it, then, 
and why is it, their votes here, and their conven- 
tions at home, are all with those they denounce as 
fanatical abolitionists? Nor is the gentleman from 
Indiana and his people the only ones who pursue 
this strange course. Many others in this Hall 
will, when you talk to them privately, avow the 



same conservative feelings; yet they vote with 
the agitators. 1 think they are doing injustice to 
themselves, and the great body of the people of the 
North: I am sure they are to the democratic por- 
tion of them. They cannot anywhere desire to 
keep up a perpetual war against their brothers of 
the South. Then why should we, their representa- 
tives, do it? If all the disturbance is, as some say, 
made by a few fanatics at the North and South, is | 
it not time for those who are opposed to its con- 
tinuance to unite, as one man, and banish it from | 
among us ? And not only should we banish it 
hence, but from among our whole people. This j 
is the course I have pursued, and I intend to pur- 
sue. During my whole political life have I openly 
rebuked this disturbing spirit in all the speeches I 
have made before the people of Pennsylvania, and 
during all that time I never lost an election. Fa- 
natical abolitionism has but small place among the 
people of Philadelphia or of Pennsylvania, and 
would have less, if their representatives would but 
cease to agitate the question here. 

I was not born in the South, as the gentleman 
fro?Ti Indiana was, though I lived there — in old 
Virginia — the greater part of six or seven years. 
I have no ties of feeling or of interest which bind 
me to the South; all the associations of my child- 
hood and my riper years, all I possess in property 
or reputation, belong to the North. It is my own 
native place — my home; but I speak here, as 
I have spoken there, the sentiments of duty, the 
dictates of my own heart, what I believe is due to 
the whole people of the United States, live where 
they may. It is a feeling which I imbibed from 
reading the early history of our country — the his- 
tory of the scenes of the Revolution — the patriot- 
ism, the eloquence of the sons of the South and 
of the North pleading and battling for a common 
cause, and pouring out their blood on the common 
fields of the South and of the North, for a com- 
mon country. And the last pulse of my heart 
shall cease to beat before I can know anything else 
than that they are all my brethren — bone of my 
bone, and flesh of my flesh; and if the North shall 
continue these aggressions, and attempt to make 
war upon the South, northern man as I am, I can- 
not now tell on which side I would be found. I 
fear I would be on the side — I do not fear, but I 
know, I would be on the side of justice and right; 
and I mean by that, that I would be with the South ; 
for I believe that justice and right is with them, 
and I prefer to be right with them to being wrong 
with any others. 

In many of the northern States, my own among 
them, I think we have done wrong in throwing 
obstacles in the way of the recovery of fugitive 
slaves. I know that some guards are necessary to 
prevent bad men from taking free negroes out of 
the State under color of their being slaves; yet in 
some States, these obstacles almost if not quite 
nullify the constitutional provision on the subject. 
In this, we have, in my estimation, violated the 
Constitution of the United States; or, if we have 
not violated the strict letter, we have violated every 
principle of fraternal feeling, and of the spirit of 
that instrument, in passing laws that interfere with 
the right of the southern people to reclaim their 
fugitive slaves when they come among us. The 
Constitution says they shall be given up; and 1 hold 
it to be the duty of every northern State through 
all its functionaries of Government, to exercise all 



its powers to deliver up every fugitive slave that 
shall be found harbored within its borders; it is the 
spirit, it is the word of the Constitution; it is the 
bond of the Constitution. ' 

How can it be otherwise than irritating to the 
South, and calculated to lessen their respect for the 
Union, thus to see the provisions of the Constitu- 
tion set aside and the bond of brotherly love disre- 
garded, all for the purpose of robbing them of that 
which the law and the Constitution guaranties to 
them ? 

I was in Virginia shortly after the Southampton 
insurrection in 1831. I attended the debates of 
the Legislature for three weeks, listening to elo- 
quent speeches in favor of the abolition of slavery. 
Never was there a more able examination of the 
whole subject, or a more sincere desire manifested 
to devise some way or nfeans to rid the State of 
it. The thing was found to be impracticable — im- 
possible. Each and every scheme proposed (and 
there were many) was found, when fairly and fully 
considered, to contain worse evils than slavery 
itself. Emboldened by the attempt of Virginia to 
do something on the subject, I know that the Abo- 
litionists of the North immediately began to pour 
their emissaries into the South, and to distribute ' 
their books with all the pictured horrors of slavery, 
to induce the people there, I presume, to go on with 
the subject of abolition. But what was the conse- 
quence? These publications were not guardedly 
sent to the owners; they thought to do a double 
work: while they enlightened the owners as to 
their duty, they sought to enlighten the slaves as 
to theirs; and they induced the belief in many that 
they would be right in breaking their bonds, even 
though it were at the price of the blood of those 
who owned them. 

All these means were resorted to to excite the 
slave to insurrection, to stir within his heart the 
spirit of rebellion. Nay, what do we see now all 
over the country? Read the papers, and you will 
see that these very abolition agents are now there 
stealing negroes — not only stirring them up to run 
away, but it is well known that they are every- 
where ready to receive them, an'd that they have 
their emissaries in the slave States, inducmg the 
slaves to run away. Now, you who have never 
lived among the slaveholders, what do you think 
it is to know that these machinations are at work 
to stir up a savage feeling of discontent, of rebel- 
lion, and of revenge in the breasts of those who 
surround you? It may be all sport to you. It 
may be you believe you are doing God service in 
endeavoring by these means to emancipate the 
negroes. But have you no feeling for the whites? 
Are the blacks only your brothers? Is there no 
other race on this earth or in this country but the 
negro? How many whites would you sacrifice in 
the South to abolish slavery? I fear, if some were 
to answer from their hearts, they must say all, all, 
ALL, and the victims would be too few, they would 
say, to expiate the cruelties that have been inflicted 
upon the slave. 'This is the feeling I want to have 
rebuked. I know that women and weak men live 
in terror. They do not doubt that if let alone, all. 
would go on well; the harmony between the races 
would not be disturbed; but it is in this continual 
effort at abolition agitation, it is these emissaries 
of the northern fanatics, secretly among them, 
whom they dread — perhaps not dread, but whom 
they have most to fear. 



8 



Nor are the whites the only sufferers. It breaks 
up all confidence between the races, and often 
causes injurious suspicions to rest on tlie slave 
greatly to his injury, preventing much from being 
done for the improvement of his condition that 
would be done if they were allowed to live together 
in peace and security. 

And what is the justification forall this.' "South- 
ern encroachments!" The Abolitionists, whenever 
they attempt to justify any attack upon the South, 
say, Oh ! it is the southern encroachments. Now, 
I ask them, in all sincerity, to tell me wherein the 
southern encroachments consist? I have misread 
the history of this country if they can point me 
to a single instance where the South has attempted 
to trample upon the rights of the North, or to in- 
terfere with their domestic institutions in any way. 
When the people of the northern States thought 
proper to abolish slavery, did their brothers of the 
South interfere.' Did they attempt in any way to 
say, We entered into this Union all as slave States, 
and you cannotdo away with slavery.' No. When j 
the North agreed to abolish slavery and send their 
slaves to the South, did the South shut their doors 
and say. You shall not come here.' When the 
North attempted to stop the foreign slave trade, 
did the South say, No.' Did the South say. You 
are characterizing this trade as piracy, and making 
us odious, and bringing upon us discredit in the 
face of the world, and we cannot join with you? 
I never heard of it. I have always understood 
that the South united with the North to prohibit 
the foreign slave trade, and brand it with all its 
odious characteristics. I have yet to learn that 
anything has been done in the North on the sub-' 
ject of the abolition of slavery anywOiere, abroad 
or at home, that the South has ever attempted to 
interfere with or encroach upon our rights. 

At the time our Constitution was formed Vir- 
ginia owned nearly the whole of the territory out 
of which has since been made the States of Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Her 
right to it may have been doubted, but we con- 
ceded it when we took the gift from her. What 
did she do? With all her slaves, she said, Take 
it. You may prohibit slavery there. Instead of 
encroaching upon us, Virginia, a southern State, 
made the donation of this magnificent domain to 
the free people of the North. 

Next, we acquired Louisiana. Gentlemen now 
say, We only ask that there shall be no slavery in 
New Mexico and California, because those Terri- 
tories are now free, and it would be encroachments 
on the rights of the northern man to let the slave- 
holder go there; but if it was slave territory we 
■would not ask you to abolish slavery there. But 
•when we got Louisiana, and Missouri presented 
herself for admission into the Union, how stood 
the case? It was all slave territory. Missouri, as a 
sovereign State, presented lierself to the Union — we 
threatened, we tried to reject her; but better coun- 
sels prevailed, and she was admitted — but one half 
of all Louisiana was made free. . 

Then Texas was annexed. I made the first 
speech at the first meeting held in the Sratc of 
'Pennsylvania in favor of annexation. I loved the 
lone star. It rose in gloom, but soon shone forth 
in glory. There is not in (he records of liistory, 
our own included, a page so eloquent of great 
acliievcments — of jiaiienc^, patriotism, and bravery 
— of all that true hearts and strong arms could do 



or endure in a good cause, as that on which is re- 
corded the brief but glorious transit of the "Lone 
Star." It deserved to belong to the great Amer- 
ican constellation, and I rejoice it is in it, there to 
remain forever. , 

Texas, before it was annexed, was all slave ter- 
ritory. Did we then say as we say now of Cali- 
fornia and New Mexico: We do not ask to change 
her institutions; all we want is to have them con- 
tinue as they are? Did we not take from the South 
one-half of Texas as we had that of Louisiana.' 
Now, all this looks very much to me as if we 
had been encroaching upon the South, and not 
the South upon us. I appeal to the House and 
the country if all this is not true. And now, after 
having received as a gift from a slave State the 
magnificent domain of the Northwest, and taken 
one-half of Louisiana and Texas, we propose to 
take all of California and New Mexico, and at the 
same time cry out against southern encroach- 
ments! 

But we are told — and it is the strong argument 
of the agitators — that the institution of slavery 
produces a political inequality against the Noi^li. 
Why, that is very strange. In any light in which I 
can view it, I think the political inequality is against 
theSouth. What is this political inequality ? Itis 
placing representation upon numbers that do not 
participate in the Government. Look at Rhode Isl- 
and — until the adoption of the new constitution, no 
poor man could vole in that State. We know, that 
at the time of the formation of the Constitution of 
the Union, a large number of the States required a 
property qualification for voters, and all those who 
had no property, and all free negroes, were counted 
in their full numbere, to give Representatives here, 
while the slaves of the South were only counted 
three for every five. I may misapprehend the sub- 
ject; but it strikes me the political inequality is 
against the South, and in favorof the North. Abol- 
ish slavery to-morrow, and every negro of the three 
millions in the southern States would be entitled 
to be counted one -in making up the basis of repre- 
sentation in this House, and give them between 
fourteen and fifteen more members in this House. 

I desire to excite no sectional feeling, but to allay 
it — to show who are right and who are wrong in 
all this. I sneak under the influence of no incum- 
bent of the White House, nor for any district, but 
to you, the Representatives of the whole Ameri- 
can people, and, through you, to the people them- 
selves, that all may know and respect each other's 
rights and feelings, and live as we ougiit to do, in 
brotherly love — emulous only of who shall do the 
most good to the other, and best promote the peace, 
the welfare, and the happiness of the whole. 

What is the aim and object of all this agitation ? 
Does the North, or any part of it, aim at the im- 
mediate and total unprepared emancipation of the 
slaves of the South? My colleague from the Beaver 
district [Mr. Dickey] will say yes! The mileage 
gcntlemtui from New York [Air. Gur.Ki.Ev] will 
say yes! The gentleman from Ohio, [Mr .Gid- 
DiNGS,] and the gentleman fVom Massachusetts 
[Mr. Palfrey,] and perhaps others, will say yes! 
What next? Is it your intention to agitate on until 
the negro is placed on an equality in all things, 
social and y>olitical, with the white man? This is 
demaiulcd by the fanatical abolitioni.?ts; and such 
was the object of the bill introduced the other d.ay 
by tTie gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Giddings.J 



9 



Such, no doubt, is the aim and objeftt of these agi- 
tations.^ 

To me the consequences of such a consumma- 
tion are fearful — now or any time which I can see 
in the future; for I can see but a short way — fear- 
ful to the white race, and still more fearful to the 
black. And why should we thus rush on madly 
to carry out an idea, regardless of consequences? 
Has slavery in reality been such a curse to the 
slaves? or has emancipation proved so great a bless- 
ing to the free negroes? 

Compare the condition of the three millions Of 
slaves now in the United States with the condition 
of any three millions of negroes in any part of the 
world, but particularly in those countries in Africa 
from which they came, and say which is superior. ! 
I care not in what the comparison is made — in the 
development of their mental or .bodily faculties. 
Show me, upon the map, where the three millions | 
dwell who know their God and their Saviour as ] 
they know them? Show me the three millions j 
who can and do worship that God as they can and 
do ? Where, in the countries from which they 
came, are the three millions with minds and intel- 
lects so improved and expanded — who know the 
hundredth or thousandth part of the great work- 
ings of the human system as they do? Nor is it 
in all this only they excel. In the development of 
physical powers, and the enjoyment of physical 
comforts, they are no less in advance of their race. 
Go to any district in the southern States, from the 
Delaware to the Rio Grande — take the most seclu- 
ded district, or where the slaves are the hardest 
worked, worst fed, and most abused, in all that 
distance, and then go to the land whence they 
sprung, and take an equal number there from any 
condition of life, and place them face to face, or 
hand to hand, in intellectual or personal conflict 
or comparison, and the superiority of the former 
would place them as much above the latter as the 
white race here is above them. 

But I am told that slavery is in violation of the 
laws of God — that it is a great evil, and ought 
therefore to be immediately extirpated. What the 
laws of God are upon this subject I do not pretend 
to know, I am only dealing with fads. .And will 
any man tell me where and what is the condition 
of life that is without its evils? I do not say sla- 
very is a good; I only say it has produced upon 
the negro race some good, if to improve and chris- 
tianize so large a mass of mankind be a good. 

The Abolitionists rarely or never take so ex- 
tended a view of this subject as I am doing, but con- 
fine themselves to portraying the degradation and 
the wrongs of the negro slaves, taking always the 
worst cases — the exceptions to the rule — and paint- 
ing them in the blackest colors their imaginations 
can find, and these they contrast with the highest 
condition of free negro life in the United States or 
elsewhere, forgetting that even this improved con- 
dition of the free negro has itself mainly grown 
out of slavery. It has been my lot to live a part 
of some years in the midst of a dense slave popu- 
lation. I speak, therefore, what I know when I 
say, as a whole, I do not believe out of our own 
country there is a less worked, better fedj and more 
affectionately cared for or happier class of labor- 
ers in the World. I am sure they do not, on an 
average, do half as much work in a year as is done 
in the same period by an equal number of laborers 
in the northern States. The misery that intem- 



perance and|Want inflict upon the laboring popula- 
tion of many parts of the world, and upon none 
more than the free negroes in some parts of our 
own country, is unknown among them. If the la- 
boring population of Europe, aye, even of the best 
parts of it, had the food and clothing, the dwellings 
and comforts of home as have ninty-nine hundredths 
or more of the slaves of our southern States, they 
would be far better off than they now are. 

We of the North do great injustice to our south- 
ern brethren on this subject. Much as we may 
be opposed to slavery, and disposed to eradicate it 
from among them, let us, at least, do them justice. 
Condemn slavery as we will, and depict its wrongs 
as we may, let us neither deny nor conceal what 
all know, who know the truth — that the great mass 
of the slaveholders are good masters, and treat their 
slaves with humanity and kindness. 

I am no advocate for slavery, in any shape or 
place; and no man regrets its existence among us 
more than I do, or would more sincerely rejoice 
at its removal, without the infliction of a greater 
wrong, and with it the entire negro race from our 
whole land. As it is, it has evils which might and 
ought to be removed, and of which I intend to 
speak, as soon as I can get an opportunity, in the 
.language of truth, but in the spirit of kindness, to 
those who alone have the right and whose duty 
it is to cure them. At present, my object is briefly 
to show to those whose disturbing influences are 
alike injurious to master and slave, their error and 
their wrong. 

Slavery may be an evil — an evil to produce good ; 
for it has pleased God in his wisdom frequently to 
place nations, as well as individuals, in servitude 
and bondage, that they may ultimately be redeemed 
with a greater salvation. When the bondage of 
the negroes is to end, or what is" to be their future 
pestiny. He alone knows, or can accomplish. One 
thing we do know — that the emancipation, thus 
far, of individuals among us, or bodies elsewhere, 
has not been as successful as its philanthropic pro- 
moters anticipated. Many individuals of high and 
pure character when slaves, have become low and 
vile when freed; and wherever they have estab- 
lished themselves in bodies, they have not im- 
proved, but rather deteriorated. For a century or 
more, there have been schools for their education 
at the North. Some twenty years ago, the public 
schools were opened for the negroes in Philadel- 
phia, with which you, Mr. Chairman, are well 
acquainted; and although we have a number of well 
educated and highly respectable negroes among 
us, yet taken in the mass the negro population is 
no better now than it was theen. Where have 
the f\t& negroes who weie educated with the son 
of the gentleman from Massachusetts, [Mr. Pal- 
fret,] gone out into the world and exhibited su- 
perior talents, or done anything to elevate their 
race? Roberts, who is now the Governor of Li- 
beria, and Frederick Douglas, the lion of the Abo- 
litionists — were they not born and raised as slaves? 
Who is that eloquent divine who i.s now thrilling 
the hearts of negroes in Liberia, and whose first 
sermon was to one of the most enlightened audi- • 
ences in Alabama? ^Ilis was born and raised a 
slave — was a slave when. he was received into the 
ministry, anJ when he was a proficient in the 
Greek, Hebrew, and Latin languages. Slavery, 
if it be an evil, has not been so great an evil to 
the negro race, so far as we can judge from results, 



10 



as to the white race, and to the country in which 
it exists; and if any one deserves our sympathy, 
it is the whites. 

While they are held as a degraded caste among 
us, emancipation does not add to their happiness 
any more than to their mental or moral improve- 
ment. 1 know, in the South, the slaves are more 
contented in their position and happier than are 
the free negroes of the North. Few of the slaves 
ever dream they are equal to their masters; they 
aspire to no such equality. They are as happy in 
the best condition of their lot as are the highest 
and proudest of earth's rulers in the best condition 
of theirs; nay, more — for they are free from the 
anxieties and cares that often make the latter mis- 
erable. Whilst the free negroes, through the 
visionary fanaticism of those who believe, or 
would make them believe, they are equal to the 
whites, feel their degradation as a wrong inflicted 
upon them, and made to believe, as they are, that 
they are entitled to political and social equality, 
the want of it gives them a thousand times more 
poignancy of feeling than any slave ever fel^ for 
the want of his personal freedom. The history of 
the world — nay, the history of the last year- 
shows what men will suffer and do for political 
equality. It has nothing equal, to prove their long- 
ing for mere personal liberty. 

Why cannot we leave this whole question of 
slavery to the care of an overruling Providence, 
and the people of the States where it exists? To 
the latter it is left by the Constitution, to regulate 
or abolish it, as they think best. In one-half of 
the slave States, if not in three-fourths of them, 
the majority of the voters, in whose hands this 
question rests, are not slaveholders. In Delaware, 
Maryland, Virgi;iia, Missouri, Kentucky, and 
Tennessee, the number of non-slaveholding voters 
over slaveholding is very great; and in most of 
the States, they hold the political power. Why, 
then, can we not leave this whole slavery question 
to them? They have no pecuniary interest in it, 
and know all about it — know its evils, and can 
best foresee the effects of its abolition. .Think 
you they have not as much of the milk of human 
kindness as we who live in the North? The abo- 
litionists themselves say the interest of non-slave- 
holders in the slave States is opposed to the con- 
tinuation of slavery. Certain it is, if slavery were 
as great an evil as it is represented, and its aboli- 
tion so easy, these non-slaveholding voters would 
soon remove it from among them. For one, 1 am 
willing to leave it to them and their fellow-citizens 
to take care of. Theirs it is to manage as they 
please, and witli them it is our duty to leave it. 
Shall we do this, or shall we go on to encourage 
these fanatical crusaders, who go forth, as of old, 
under the peaceful banner of the Cross, and with 
the specious object of doing God service, to deso- 
late and destroy a nation, and perish themselves 
amid the scenes of strife and bloodshed their own 
unholy zeal had kindled? 



Continued February 7. 
Mr. Chaiuman: Having been obliged, by the 
briefness of the time allowed me, when consider- 
ing the condition of the negroes the other day, to 
pass over it more rapidly than I desired, I return to 
It now, for a few moments, to present it more fully 
to the view of the committee and the country. 



In an estimate of the capacity of the negroes for 
self-government, as individuals or communities, 
many overlook the fact, that even their free, im- 
proved condition, such as it is anywhere, has 
mainly grovi'n out of their previous servitude. I 
have already alluded to them in relation to indi- 
viduals and bodies of them in the United States, 
and now refer to them in, the West Indies, South 
America, and Liberia, as further illustration of the 
fact. In Hayti, though they have had the gov- 
ernment of the island in their own hands more 
than fifty years, they have not only not improved 
their condition in any respect, but have been 
warring upon each other, on account of their differ- 
ent shades of color, until their best friends fear 
they will not much longer be able to govern them- 
selves, but must fall under the dominion of the 
whites again — conquered by adventurers, or by 
some other nation. They have no men among 
them now equal to Toussaint L'Ouvertureand his 
fellow slaves, who achieved its independence. 

Thus far, the slaves emancipated in the British 
West Indies have not improved. Many of them 
have gone back almost into their original African 
barbarism; and generally they have become indo- 
lent, improvident, and vicious; and unless they 
shall change their course, if will not be many years 
until the fair islands they inhabit will be as unpro- 
ductive as they were before the arrival of Colum- 
bus, or as any part of Africa. 

Of all places on earth where the negroes now 
dwell, around Liberia the fondest hopes of the 
friends of the race are gathered. There they have 
not yet gone back — they are advancing. It is a 
bright spot in the dark history of tha^ dark people. 
What it may prove to be in the future, no man 
knows; but for its success all good men should 
pray. But while all eyes are turned to it in hope, 
let none forget that now, with all its intelligence 
and progress, it is yet only a colony of liberaUd 
slaves from these United States. 

I do not say the negro race is incapable of govern- 
ing themselves as other civilized nations; but thus 
far the experiments have not proved very successful. 
It may be they will yet succeed, or it may be these 
attempts have been premature; that they have not 
been through a sufficient number of generations 
connected with the white race to have that pupillary 
training required to raise so low and barbarous a 
race to the proper degree of civilization to enable 
them to carry on and out that further and continued 
progress necessary to ultimate success; .and this, 
I think, is the true reason of much of their retro- 
gradation. No one can deny that they are, through 
climate, physical conformation, or long degrada- 
tion, an inferior race; not only inferior to the 
white, but inferior to the American Indians and 
other races. As such, it may be doubted whether 
they ever can attain to a sufficiently high standard 
of civilization to associate with the whites as equals, 
or as nations to maintain their independence, if 
left to their own free action. They may lack 
many of the elements of character necessary to 
such an attainment. This, however, is what their 
Maker alone can know — we can only guess at it, 
from the limited knowledge we possess. 

One thing is certain, that no two unequal races 
can keep distinct, and live together and harmonize 
as equals. The history of the world is against 
it. Look at our own history. Two hundred 
years ago, the whites began to settle this country. 



11 



Then, all this vast Union v/as peopled by a race | 
evidently superior to the negi-oes. They were free. ; 
Everything that religion and philanthropy could 
devise or do to civilize and christianize this race i 
was done, and yet what has been the result? Mil- 
lions and millions have been destroyed by us, until 
the whole race has nearly passed away; and how 
few have we either christianized or civilized! 
About the same time we began to civilize and 
christianize the free Indians, we began to import 
negroes into this country as slaves. The climate 
was certainly more favorable to the natives than 
to the negrctes. These negro slaves have not only 
increased and multiplied beyond all other people, 
but in civilization and Christianity have risen faster 
and higher than any and all other barbarous people 
during the same period. I submit this simple 
statement of facts to the serious consideration of 
the fanatical abolitionist, as well as the true phi- 
lanthropist and Christian. It is full of admoni- 
tion. To me it proves ciearly that an inferior 
race, or degraded caste, cannot thrive in connection 
with a superior, unless under its care and control; 
the former must be made equal to the latter, or be 
€nslaved or destroyed by it. I do not suppose 
that complete equality (which can only be brought 
about by a perfect unity or amalgamation of the 
races) can be desired by any sane member of the 
European branch of the Ameitcan family. It is 
too monstrous to think of, and would lead to such 
a degeneracy of the whole people of this country 
as, in a brief period, to cause them to fall before 
some invading, superior, and purer northern na- 
tion or people, in the same way the Indians have 
fallen, and the mixed breeds south of us must 
certainly hereafter fall before us. 

If the friends of the negroes — fanatical or reason- 
able — would do the race a real good, they would 
cease to desire or urge their political or social con- 
nection with us, (which, in my estimation, never 
can, will, or ought to take place,) and direct their 
€fforts to their improvement and removal south- 
ward in America or to Africa. The course now 
being pursued by both fanatical abolitionists and 
free-soilers, if persevered in, and the more if they 
shall succeed, will lead, sooner or later, combined 
with other causes to which I shall shortly allude, 
and particularly the competition of labor, to a war 
of races, that must end in the extermination of the 
weaker. 

While the people of the South have rights that 
should be respected, defended, and protected by 
the North, and which, for one, I have ever done 
and intend to do, they have dulics to perform, alike 
required of them by the progressive institutions of 
freedom and enlightenment in this our own coun- 
try, by the spirit of the age in which we live, and 
by their God. As they shall give an account of 
their stewardship at the great day, they are bound 
to improve the negroes intrusted to their care, and 
elevate them to the highest degree of civilization 
and Christianity their situation and condition will 
admit. They are an inferior race, it is true; but 
they are not a bad one. They have many valua- 
ble and good characteristics, and are endowed with 
feelings and a soul; and it is due to them, as well 
as to the white people of the South, that nothing 
should b^left undone that will develop their good 
qualities and eradicate their bad. 

Marriage among them ought to be made and re- 
garded with as much solemnity and obligation as 



among whites. They should only marry by con- 
sent of their masters, and then never be separated; 
nor should they be separated from their children 
while young. I know that these ties of marriage 
and nature are fully respected by all good masters 
now, and that their violation is as much condemned 
by the community generally in the South as in the 
North. But they should never be violated — they 
should be made the law of the land as unalterable 
as those of the Medes and Persians. I am aware, 
and have already testified to the care and human- 
ity of the masters generally throughout the South; 
but I know, and we all know, there are bad men 
among slaveholders as in other conditions of life, 
and it is to protect the slave from wrong when 
owned bysuch men, that every law should be enact- 
ed necessary for his improvement and protection. 
Many good laws are already in existence for the 
latter purpose, and as I know, are rigidly enforced, 
far more than the people of the North generally 
have any idea of. Indeed, the great ignorance of 
the latter on the whole subject of slavery, is the 
main cause of all the agitation that has been and 
IS now disturbing the peace of the country. 

They should all be educated — taught to read at 
least — and all good books placed in their hands. 
I know this was being done to a great extent 
throughout the southern States before the fanat- 
ics began to send their incendiary tracts among 
them, causing laws to be passed prohibiting ed- 
ucation. Those incendiaries ought to be treated 
as pirates — enemies to all mankind — and effect- 
ually put down. Whether they are or not, still 
I think those laws are wrong. 1 do not believe 
education would make them any more likely to 
be misled by these fanatics than they are without 
it. Through secret channels and open discussions, 
one way or another, they are made acquainted 
with all the doings and designs of these fanatics 
now, and through ignorance may believe they are 
for their good; thus creating secret dissatisfaction 
that cannot be openly met and removed. If they 
could read, they would know the true condition of 
their race, and be less likely to be misled. All 
that I have seen or heard of the effects of education 
among the slaves has convinced me that it makes 
them more contented, and more reliable, and more 
valuable. Indeed, even now, so sensible are many 
of this fact, that in despite of the laws against it, 
they deem it their duty to teach their slaves to 
read. No objections I have ever yet heard, ijx 
the eyes of mankind or of God, will be taken as a 
sufficient reason or excuse for allowing the minds 
of so large a mass of mankind to remain in compar- 
ative darkness forever. 

Independently of the high moral tone all this will 
confer upon the slaves, and the consequent bene- 
ficial results to the masters, it will take from the 
opponents of the institution their most powerful 
arguments against it. The anathemas of the fa- 
natical abolitionists would be hushed in the appro- 
bation of all the rest of mankind. 

To cultivate and to christianize so many millions 
of slaves is an achievement within the power of 
the South, and will return a hundred fold of good on 
those who do it. Let the world see these millions 
of slaves advancing in intelligence and virtue, un- 
der the care of their masters, and at the same time 
all the rest of the race remaining in barbarism, or 
disturbed and destroyed by their own want of ca- 
pacity to govern themselves, and slavery will cease 



12 



to. be the theme for agitation, any wliere anJ every- 
where. 

Besides the loss sustained for tlie want of useful 
mental cultivation, I know that the people of the 
South generally suffer much from the want of the 
proper cultivation of .other faculties of their slaves. 
There is no reason why slaves cannot do as much 
and as varied work, and as well, as any others, only 
that they are not trained to the best modes of 
doing it, and have not placed in their hands the 
best instruments used in its performance. As a 
■whole, for these reasons they do not perform more 
than half as much as they mij^ht do, with equal 
ease and more satisfaction to themselves, if they 
had this physical and mental cultiva'ion. Nor is 
that half work more than half done, which is a 
double loss to their masters and to tlie community. 
There is no reason why the whole South does not 
improve in all that embellishes its soil, or ren- 
ders it more productive, but that its labor is not 
directed by the intelligence, tasle, and energy ne- 
cessary. The South has all the means requisite 
to make it the most prosperous and highly beauti- 
fied portion of the earth, if it would but properly 
and efficiently develop and direct its means. 

I think it is the duty of the South to allow gradual 
manumission, if not to encourage it. In connection 
with this, or indeed anterior to it, the South ought to 
take more effectual steps to improve the free negroes 
among them. As it is, they are a curse to the 
whites, to the slaves, and to themselves. They 
might be made a useful and respectable class, and 
manumission v/ould ihen be beneficial to the negro 
and the whole community, and thus prepare the 
way for the freedom of the race, without violence 
or wrong, if Providence ever intends therti to be 
free and remain among us. 

I come now to speak of the proposed territorial 
restriction; that is, to confine slavery within its 
present limits. Should it be understood at the 
South that this decree is to be irrevocable, and 
they sulimit to it, each of the southern Stales, 
looking to its own future prosperity, if not .its 
existence, will do what has been frequently at- 
tempted to be done by the fanatics through Con- 
gress — stop all immigration of slaves from one 
State into another. Thus far the slaves have been 
gradually immigrating southward. At the decla- 
ration of our independence, every State in the 
Union held slaves. New England liad as many 
as Georgia, and so had New York. Even in 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, together, the slaves 
outnumbered those of Georgia. Since then, in 
the short period of a little over seventy years, all 
the slaves from the seven old northern Slates have 
gone southward into the old southern Slates, and, 
with their progeny and the progeny of others of 
the southern States, have gone and are going On 
in the same direction, into Kentucky, Tennessee, 
Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Mis- 
souri, Arkansas, and Texas. Slavery was not 
abolished in ihe nortliern Slates so much from 
feelings hf philanthropy as from interest. It was 
found, as foreign white ininjigration increased, to 
be less profiialde to work slaves than to sell them 
to the South and employ white labor. The same 
causes are steadily and increa.'singly at work now 
to banish slavery from Delaware, Maryland, Mis- 
souri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia; a con- 
siderable portion of each of these Slates now em- 
ploy while labor, and have conijiaratively few 



slaves. As foreign emigration increases, (and in- 
crease it will to liiillions a year,) this reifloval of 
the slaves will be continued with a correa|)onding 
increased celerity, until slavery, and, to a great 
extent, the whole negro race in this country, will 
be confined to the range of country stretching from 
the Chesapeake all around the coast of tlie Atlantic 
and the Gulf of Mexico, ahd inwards to within a 
few miles of the lower falls of the rivers. This is 
the great cotton, rice, and sugar-growing country, 
where negroes can do field work and live and 
thrive, and where white men cannot work in the 
fields and retain health and life long. If we do 
not stop this operation of the wise laws of Provi- 
dence, the two races will go on to find and enjoy 
those portions of the earth best suited to each. 
The negroes, either free or as slaves, will be the 
laborers to produce cotton, rice, sugar, and other 
field productions of the South; and the whiles who 
labw will occupy the higher and more healthy 
portions of the country, and be the producers of 
breadstuffs, and carry on all or most of the manu- 
facturing and mechanic arts. Should we, how- 
ever, restrict the slaves and negroes to where they 
now are, and the more southern slave States pro- 
hibit them from coming from the more northern,- 
they will begin in the latter, from which they are 
now disappearing, to increase in numbers, (unless 
means are provided to take them out of the coun- 
try, or they shall be driven into the sea,) and will 
go on increasing, until they soon drive out all the 
while laborers, mechanics, and workmen from 
these States, and throw them back on the northern 
free States. One-fourth of the people of Delaware, 
Kentucky, and Tennessee, and nearly one-third 
of those of Maryland, and two-fifths of those of 
Virginia, are negroes. Plas any man in the North 
contemplated what must be the effect on the St.ates 
north of these States of penning the negroes all up 
where they are.' They are a rapidly-increasing 
race; and should our humanity remain superior to 
our interest, and we continue to allow them to 
come among us, they will, instead of sending the 
surplus South, as they now do, roll back year 
after year upon us, the worst part of both slave 
and free, until they drive all the white laborers 
out of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and north- 
ward. This will not be submitted to patienlly 
by the white laborers of the North; and, before 
they yield to them, many and bloody will be the 
contests that must inevitably take place. If ever 
the two races shall become engaged in bloody strife 
for any object, and most of all for bread, it will 
have biit one end — the extirpation of the negroes. 
We of Philadelphia have had some experience of 
such a conflict of races; and we of Pennsylvania 
will be the sootiest and most overrun by these re- 
turning hordes of negroes. 

To the more northern States, this viiew of the 
subject will present little or no danger. Their cli- 
mate is too cold to induce many neffrocstogo there, 
and consequently they know very little practically 
about them — little aS free, and less as slaves. But 
suppose our interest shall prove stronger than our 
humanity, and we follow the^example of Ohio,, 
Indiana, and IlliiKjis, who impose penalties on all 
negroes coming into them, and by the last State 
ihey are kept out entirely by consiiuuional prohib- 
ition — su|ipose we do this, what liien will be the 
consequences on the North.' 

As the negroes increase, the white operatives in 



13 



these 'States will diminish, until the former will [and are constantly going there, all of whom find 
have taken the place of the latter in all the Indus- i: profitable and respectable employment, 
trial pursuits. The advocates of the free white j! If we take into consideration, m addition to the . 
laborers of the North forset that there are hun- : freemen of the North ^ho thus find employment 
dreds of thousands of the free white mechanics of; in the slave territory, the vast number of them who 
the North now living and prospering in the south- [ find it at home, in providing for the wants of the 
ern States. -Every town and city is filled with | slave States, I question if the extension of slave 



them. In many of them they hold the political 
power. Besides the mechanics that are there, others 
are going there continually. Those that are there 
must go away, or at least no others need go there, 
if this restrictive system shall be established, for 
their places will be filled by negroes. As soon as 
the negroes increase to over supply the demands 
for their usual out-door pursuits, their owners will 
of necessity find employment for them in-doors; 
first in the ruder mechanic and manufacturing arl^, 
and then the more refined, until they w-ill absorb 
them all. 

Still they will go on to increase, and when they 
have filled all the known avenues of labor, then 
they will begin to seek new ones; and instead of 
being, as they now are, the gre^t consumers of the 
products of the mechanics and manufacturers of 
the North, they will become their rivals, and then 
supersede them in the markets of the world. Ma- 
ryland, Virginia, and indeed nearly all the south- 
ern States, have within them rich mineral deposites 
of coal and iron, and other metals; and their rivers 
have most magnificent sites for water power open 
all the year. Inferior as the negroes are, they are 
nevertheless well qualified for operatives in manu- 
factories. Already in Virginia, and in other south- 
ern States, many cotton manufactories are in suc- 
cessful operation, worked by slaves. 

Still they will increase, and cannot go out; and 
as they increase in number, the wages of their labor 
will decrease, and thus will ice cause to grow up 
in our midst a body of worse than pauper laborers, 
against whom no tariff or other laws can afford 
protection. If this slavery-restriction system shall 
ue fully carried into effect, as^the Free-soil party 
contemplate, before one hundred years, or it may 
be fifty, the manufactories of New England and 
Pennsylvania, and her iron works too, will be su- 
perseded by those on the mountains and rivers 
between the Chesapeake and the Rio Grande, as 
certain as the sun sliall continue to shine. 

Take a more limited view of the effect this re- 
strictive system will have on the trade between 
the two sections — a trade that has gone on increas- 
ing with every expansion of territory to the South 
until it far exceeds all the rest of the trade of the 
country. Go to the wharves of Philadelphia, New 
York, Boston, and other seaports of the North, 
and look at the cargoes of the hundred ships and 
other vessels there daily, and almost hourly, sail- 
ing for some southern port, with all the products 
of the skill and labor of our workmen. Look, 
too, at the rich and valuable cargoes of rice, cotton, 
and sugar they bring us back in return, or take to 
other countries and bring in return for them to us 
the products or the merchandise of those countries. 
All this natural and useful trade and intercourse 
must be broken up, and those whose bread and 
comfortable existence depends upon it in the North 
be driven to unknown parts or pursuits. 

There is a great deception in the cry raised for 
"free soil for free men." 1 have already said, 
large numbers of mechanics, artisans, and others 
of the freemen of the North are now in the South, 



territory has not done more for the free workmen 
of the North than has a like extension of free ter- 
ritory in this or any other country. 

I think it is a great mistake to suppose, that to 
extend the area of slavery is to increase the num- 
ber of slaves. This is not true while all foreign 
importation is prohibited. I do not think negroes 
multiply any faster when scattered over a large 
surface. The idea that is frequently expressed by. 
some of the most visionary of the fanatics, that their 
increase is promoted through cupidity, is, to my 
mind, too absurd to need refutation. The migra- 
tion of the slaves southward, and their retention 
in field labor has been a great blessing to them. 
They are far better off now in the new States of 
the South, than they would be if they had been 
confined to the old ones. Think you, if the three 
millions were confined now^within the six old 
slave States, their condition or the condition of the 
whites, north or south, would be better than it isr 
Yet such would be the state of things, if the ideas 
of those who are opposed to the enlargement of 
the area of slavery had been adopted fifty years 
ago; and something like it, or worse, it will be fifty 
years hence, if they are adopted now, as I have 
attempted to show. 

If such will be some of the effects of this restrictive 
system upon the North, what will be those upon 
the South? It is a fearful thought. The very idea 
of building such a wall around any people to shut 
them in where they are, and out of all other parts 
of the earth, is to my mind, in any aspect of the 
case, most unnatural and horrible. What if the 
white people of Ireland, or England, or even New 
England had been thus shut in, can any one im- 
agine what would have been their present condi- 
tion.' And yet we would shut in these three mil- 
lions and upwards of negroes, with less than 
double that number of whites, and with the cer- 
tainty that they would soon be further closed within 
narrower limits, and with less than an equal num- 
ber of whites. 

I will not attempt to foreshadow what will 
eventually be the consequence and the end of such 
a measure to them all. History affords no example 
to judge from. The world has never yet witnessed 
so stupendous an act of despotic power and wrong 
committed by one portion of the people of a coun- 
try on another as we are, step by step, inflictirg 
on the South, in prohibiting slaves from going 
south by act of Congress, and then prohibiting all 
free negroes from going north by acts of the Slates. 
True, though the negro may not go out either bond 
or free, the white man may; but before he is en- 
tirely banished from his home, and the home of 
his fathers, fearful indeed will be the conflict and 
the suffering to him, and still more fearful to the 
negroes who must still remain behind him. 

What should we do, then, with this great ques- 
tion.' for great it is, and of absorbing interest to 
the philanthropist and the statesman. I cannct 
say, with my colleague, [Mr. Wilmot,] that " I 
have no sympathy for the negro," for 1 have a 
deep and abiding sympathy for him, and would 



14 



do all that can be done consistent with what is 
due to our own race for his welfare and eleva- 
tion. I would, looking to his good, recommend 
no general system of emaiicipation until he shall 
have proved himself, beyond all doubt, fit to be 
free. I would wait till it i^s seen what his free- 
dom will do for him in this country, in the West 
Indies, and in Africa. If ever he is to rise in 
th.e scale of humanity, it must be in that clime 
where he is physically best fitted to live in. He 
never can rise in northern countries, for there, 
sooner or later, unless renewed from the south, 
his whole race must become extinct. Let all wait, 
then, till he shows what freedom will do for him 
in the West Indies and Africa before we disrupt 
society here, and desolate our whole land merely 
that he may be free. In the mean time, let us pass 
no laws to fix the race in any one place, but let 
them continue their migration southward until they 
go through the United States, if they will, into Mex- 
ico and further south , where already they seem to be 
amalgamating with the other races. And while they 
are going, we of the North should let them alone. 
We cannot mend their destiny; we can only mar 
it. They are in the South, and of the South. The 
five or six millions of our white brothers there are 
more intimately connected with them, and more 
deeply interested in them, than we are. Let us, I 
repeat, leave them to those among whom they 
dwell, trusting to their patriotism, their humanity, 
their wisdom, their Christianity, to deal kindly and 
justly with them, until the common Father of us 
all shall work out his own great and good pur- 
poses with us and with them. 

We have already seen the utter inutility of laws 
fixing the bounds of slavery. This country was 
agitated far and wide on the introduction of Mis- 
souri into the Union. The attempt was then made 
to prescribe the limits of slavery; and fanatics 
looked upon the reception of that State into the 
Union with slavery as aiding the extension of that 
institution. Yet what are the facts in relation to 
Missouri now .' Why, if white laborers continue 
to flow into her as they have been doing recently, 
it will not be many years before slavery will cease 
to exist there, as it already has, by these same 
natural laws, quietly and peaceably ceased in all 
the old northern States. I mention the case of 
Missouri, to show that natural laws are more pow- 
erful than Congressional ones. The ordinance of 
1787, much as it is respected by anti-slavery advo- 
cates, to my mind wasof very little importance, and 
of the same little consequence do I consider the 
Missouri compromise. If slaves had been allowed 
to go into the Northwestern Territory, or north of 
3C° 30' in that of Louisiana, by law, Cew would 
ever have been taken there; and those who formed 
the State Governments would have excluded them, 
or if they had not, they would soon have gone out 
from the same causes that have taken them out of 
the old northern Slates. The impossibility of fix- 
ing slavery by law upon any part of this country 
whose climate is such that white labor can be 
readily obtained and successfully brought into 
competition with it, has been shown, north and 
west, to be an absurdity. Why has it disappeared 
from the more northern States, or why is it de- 
creasing, positively or comparatively, in Delaware, 
Mniylanil, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and 
Virginia? Becausethis law of God — theirciimate — 
is more powerful than the laws of man. Even in 



the higher and more healthy parts of the southern 
States, the number of slaves is small, compared 
with the lower, warmer, and more unhealthy parts 
of them. When the superior race have the advan- 
tage of climate, the inferior race, if not forced to 
remain by human laws, will disappear. 

On the other hand, were we to ena^t a thousand 
laws to drive or keep the negroes out of those 
parts of the southern States to which I havealluded 
as the cotton, rice, and sugar-growing portions, 
whose climate is death to any white man from the 
North who attempts to labor on its fields, they 
would not induce the white laborers of the North 
to go there. He would be their worst enemy who 
would attempt it. They would but go to their graves. 
Some years since, a large number of Irishmen were 
taken to New Orleans to dig a canal near that city; 
the consequence was, that they nearly all died, and 
that very soon. A number of Grerman laborers 
were induced to go to the southern part of Texas. 
I am told by a gentleman on this floor that, after 
suffering with diseases the most painful, they have 
nearly all died. We all know how destructive of 
life the whole South is to northern men, everr 
when not exposed to the sun. What would it be 
if they were obliged to labor day after day under 
its scorching beams ? No laws could impel them 
to do it; and if we had prohibited slavery in Lou- 
isiana, Mississippi, or Alabama before they were 
States, and enough white men had gone there to form 
a State, they would either have become depopu- 
lated, or, from the law of necessity, have adopted 
slavery afterwards. Does any man doubt this? 
Then why should we agitate this whole country 
time and again, and alienate one portion of its 
people from another, to accomplish what is im- 
practicable and pernicious. 

If slaves were to be carried to California, or 
the higher part of New Mexico, the pressure of 
the whites would soon drive them out of it. But 
no man, north or soutli, that I have ever con- 
versed with, believes they will ever be carried 
there. The certainty that slaves will be prohib- 
ited by them when formed into States, will pre- 
vent any one from taking slaves there, if so dis- 
posed. Then, I am asked, why not prohibit them 
by law? For a very good reason — it is obnoxious 
to a large number of our brethren; it places them, 
our equals under our Constitution, in the position 
of our inferiors; and, for one, I am not willing to 
fix upon them this mark of degradation. We are 
told by high authority, that " when one member 
suflTers all the members suffer with it," and that 
" if one member be honored all the members rejoice 
with it." Let us, then, rejoice in doing justice and 
honor to all the members of this great Union of 
ours, rather than in dishonoring any of them. 

I am opposed to it, moreover, because, though 
it can do no good, it may do much harm, by 
depriving one-half of the people of the States of 
their equal rights with the other — of an equal par- 
ticipation in the common property of the Union, 
won equally by their services, sufferings, and bra- 
very, consecrated equally with their blood, and 
to be paid for equally by them from their com- 
mon treasury. 1 am opposed to it, because it 
makes invidious distinctions among equals, by 
attempting to fix a stigma upon the institutions of 
one-half of the State.^, which, at the formation of 
our Union, were common to them all. But above 
all, I am opposed to it, because it is in violation 



15 



of the spirit, if not of the letter of the Constitution, 
which spreads its protecting regis over the property 
of the citizens of all the States alike when beyond 
the jurisdiction of the State — alike over the slaves 
of the South, as over the ships of the North when 
wrecked on a foreign shore, and which should 
make no distinctions in its protection of these same" 
ships or slaves when found in the waters or on the 
land of the common territory of all the States, until 
those who inhabit that territory shall provide a 
government and laws for their own protection. 

But it is said by some,- the people of the South 
would never oppose the prohibition, if only the 
mere abstract right were involved. Whoever rea- 
• sons thus, must tMnk they are. degenerate sons of 
their sires of the Revolution, or must have for- 
gotten that those sires pledged their "lives, their 
fortunes, and their sacred honor" for an abstract 
right, and nobly redeemed the pledge on many a 
battle-field. We of the North, and particularly 
they of Massachusetts, should remember, too, 
that it was more for wrongs inflicted on the North 
than the South that they fought and bled. 

If the people of the South asked any special 
legislation for their benefit, I should be as much 
opposed to it as I am to special legislation against 
them. All the rights they have under the Consti- 
tution, every man in the Union ought to allow 



them to enjoy in peace and safety; and these are 
all they demand. They do not ask us to establish 
slavery anywhere. They do not propose to ex- 
clude any free man, woman, or child, in the north- 
ern States, or in any other part of the world, from 
going into these Territories, and taking with them 
all they possess, and, when there, being secured 
in its full enjoyment. They have not asked to be 
allowed to take their slaves there — they have asked 
nothing for their slaves, or for slavery, at any time, 
in this District, in the States, or in the Territories. 
They ask nothing but to be let alone. They do 
not want the word "slaves," or "slavery," to be 
heard in the debates of this Hall, or to be found 
upon your statute-books. Surely it is hard, very 
hard, they cannot enjoy this small privilege — nay, 
this sacred right — the right of our brotherhood, 
the right of the Constitution — in peace. 

Thus far I have voted for every proposition to 
settle this vexed question, and to enable the people 
of those territories to form governments, confident 
that if we leave them unrestricted, they will do what 
is best. My object, in all that I have said or done 
on this subject, has been to allay this sectional war, . 
which has already done much to alienate the affec- 
tions of one part of our country from another, and 
to restore a better' feeling; and while I shall remain 
here, I intend to pursue the same course to the end. 



:M 



146 ' 



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